Warehouse Storage Services Key Terms

Getting familiar with warehouse storage services key terms

Warehouse storage services can save you a lot of money if you are a small to medium sized business and you can’t afford to add space to your already existing facility. The types of storage options vary from simple units all the way to complex distribution centers that can help you with assembling parts, delivering them and then helping with customer service. As you explore your options there are some terms that you will want to understand.

Kitting

Kitting refers to the process of packaging individual items into one unit. Some warehouse storage services offer kitting to their clients.

Pick and pack

Pick and pack refers to taking small to large quantities of a product from large quantities and dissembling them by picking the pertinent product for a specific destination and then re-packaging it with a shipping label and invoice included. As you do your research, you will find warehouse storage services that offer pick and pack to their clients.

Cross docking

Cross docking refers to the process of receiving shipments in large or small quantities that have arrived by rail, air, trailer or container and then processing them by unloading and staging them for reshipment while incurring only minimal storage time. There are warehouse storage services that can do cross docking.

Bar code, barcode reader

A bar code (or barcode) is an optical machine-readable depiction of data that is made up of lines and spacing. They can also come in patterns of dots, hexagons, squares or other geometric patterns. Warehouse storage services can provide bar coding as part of what they do for clients to make finding and tracking what is being stored easier. A barcode reader is necessary to read the barcode.

Reverse logistics

Reverse logistics is a term that is used to describe all the processes related to the reuse or disposal of products and materials. Some warehouse storage services offer reverse logistics to their clients.

EDI

EDI is an acronym for electronic data interchange and refers to the transmission of data between organizations electronically. Documents are transferred from one computer system to another. Warehouse storage services often use EDI for large transactions.